Publication Date September 11, 2016 | SFist

Soberanes Fire Reaches 105,642 Acres, New Evacuation Orders Issued

United States
The Soberanes Fire from the air on August 30. Photo: Jack Morse, SFist
The Soberanes Fire from the air on August 30. Photo: Jack Morse, SFist

The slow-moving, seven-week-old Soberanes Fire in and around Big Sur continues to burn through Los Padres National Forest to the south, and remains 60 percent contained. As of 6 p.m. Saturday, federal fire authorities issued an expanded evacuation order for the first time in a couple of weeks, indicating that several inhabited areas may be under threat as the fire continues to move under unstable weather conditions. The fire has now scorched over 105,000 acres.

The Tassajara Zen Center and Tassajara Road are now under a mandatory evactuation, and the Tassajara team announced yesterday on Facebook that they would begin evacuating non-essential personnel, leaving behind their team of trained fire-fighting personnel. Following the 2008 Basin Complex Fire which threatened to destroy the Zen Center, the secluded retreat now has a sophisticated system of rooftop sprinklers to protect itself from fire